Tainted Love ~Muke Clemmings~

Chapter 23

We pull up into the city, and I look at the rebellion. I haven't witnessed one of these in so long, and mixed in with the crowd was my father and my brother. Anger built up inside of me when I saw them, how my father kicked me out.

The rebellion broke out over a new discovery.

A way to kill vampires.

I didn't care for it much, I preferred to be with Michael. Under his protection, more privileged than the majority. The way to kill them? Well, it wasn't like anything I heard of. My Mum used to tell me how people thought to kill them when they did not necessarily exist. Of course, people tried them and were killed and the vampires healed.

But this was effective, one died. Her name was Janice Berrins. The human man that killed her was named Henry Murrey. He was in his 60's, and spent his life using different methods to try and kill her. When it was heard that a vampire went missing and possibly being held captive by a human became big news before I was born. It was when my brothers were less than one.

She had been missing for years. And most had forgotten about her.

But it was proven that she was tortured as Henry used different methods on her. She didn't die and healed quickly, until pine wood was used. It hurt her more than others and it took longer to heal. Jabbing her through the heart did not work, so as speculation had it a long time ago, stakes dipped in different types of animal blood could kill them.

And it did.

A stake dipped in a bear's blood and stabbed through the forehead would kill them.

It took him almost twenty years, and he was committed to the cause.

He dumped her out on the streets, and eventually she was recognised. And it was traced back to Henry.

But because I have been locked in the room I had no idea of this news. But Michael decided to bring me into the city to see the rioting. The men were holding these stakes, with a darker substance on the tips of each one which I assumed was bear's blood.

Of course, Henry was killed. But because it was the murder of a vampire, it was a public thing. He was hung.

I just came back from that.

I nearly vomited, no matter how many times I've seen people being killed during riots it didn't feel right. I knew it was going to happen, it wasn't sudden. I saw him being strangled to death and I was in slight shock. And Michael was called down because of the riot, and the stakes being used. Most vampires were too hesitant to even get close to the circle.

As he exited the car, I decided to follow him silently.

I make eye contact with my father and he just keeps chanting what the rest of the group is and looks away from me. It hurt and it angered me more.

Michael gestures to a vampire in the area and said vampire goes straight towards the group. Someone slices his arm with the stake and I could see his skin open and begin bubbling as if it was boiling. I felt sick once again.

As the vampire was examining his cut someone else drives their steak into his forehead, and he drops. Lifeless.

Some may argue that most of them were dead inside, but it wasn't true. You still had blood in your veins, you could still experience pain and emotions. I would say that despite the lack of empathy in most of them - they were very much alive.

"Do me a favour." Michael says to me.

"What?" I ask him shakily, my anxiety levels rising.

"Go into the riot." He orders.

"I've never rioted before!" I respond.

He rolls his eyes and says, "Do it. This may hurt but I am going to attack you, nothing that will cause permanent damage but I want you to scream for help. Then you run into the crowd and grab that stake from that vampire's head and pretend to be rioting. I am going to send another vampire into the riot, directly at you. Your job is to take as many stakes as you can and run from the crowd."

I stay silent, uneasy at the idea.

"You will not hurt a vampire, or kill one for that matter. No matter who you are the punishment is public hanging." He tells me and I nod.

"I'm ready." I whisper.

Without another word from him he gets on top of me and I begin to scream. It sounded fake, to me at least. Until he frowned and bit my shoulder. Not too deep, and he didn't drink anything I don't think. But it hurt bad and I screamed in pain.

He loosens his grip on me and push him off of me, getting up and running over to the riot. They knew I was human automatically, witnessing the experience from afar.

I force out the stake from the vampire and stand at the edge of the crowd, beginning to chant; "Vampires are not in control." Over and over.

It was annoying to repeat but I did it anyway, my shoulder sending pain waves steadily throughout the upper right half of my body.

I see a vampire head directly at me and I make eye contact with Michael. I begin to rip people's stakes out of their hands and they were confused for a moment and I heard them saying something about me working for them - but their screams were to no avail as the chanting overpowered it. I grabbed maybe twenty and ran from the crowd. I went over to Michael and dropped all the stakes in front of him guiltily.

About 50 vampires go into the crowd. More than half of them were now without weapons, and everybody was now defenseless and they were caught.

I stare at the vampires carrying them away, and I see my father and brother look at me with mercy in their eyes. I keep a hard face as they get carried away.

"You did good." He tells me and I turn to him.

"I feel bad." I admit, kicking a small rock that was in front of my foot.

He leans down and places a gentle kiss on my cheek, wrapping his arm tightly around my shoulders. "Ow, Michael." I say as pressure is applied to my wound.

He looks and pulls his arm away. "Sorry." He frowns, remembering what he did. He had to make it believable. I didn't blame him.

But I had a feeling a lot more riots were going to break out. And I feared I may be the person who had to break them up. Even worse I feared that I will be responsible for many deaths. I wouldn't be above a vampire. I was already going to be responsible for about 30, including my father and one of my brothers. And I couldn't help the heavy feeling of guilt inside of my stomach and the idea sinking in and clouding my mind.

I was a murderer.